Thirty eight years separated the two events, yet I can tell you exactly where I was when the news came through. The first incident, I was a seven year old boy sitting in the back of the car as my mother was driving to the bank. My sister and I were both home from school sick, but my mother needed to do some things and, even sick, we had to go. Mom had the radio on and they broke in to tell the nation that President Kennedy had been shot. I was little and didn’t understand why my mother started crying. I was amazed that there in that bustling little town, cars were pulling over and even men were weeping. The most amazing thing to little boy.

          Thirty eight years later I was in my office when one of our men came in and told the secretary and myself of planes flying into the twin towers. The radio confirmed it. I sent the secretary home and I went home. Marsha and I watched the second building come down. I wasn’t a little kid any more. My family needed me, my church needed me and, surprisingly to me, the entire faith community of our small city would soon turn to me. I wanted to be one of those men from thirty eight years before who pulled over and wept, but I was needed in a way I had never been needed before. No time for tears.

          We had a prayer chain at our church and I often used it as I do at this church; as a means to transmit information. I put out that we would open the church that night, September 11, 2001, at 7 PM for anyone who wanted to come in and pray. Several other churches in town did the same thing, but we had people come in to our church from all the other churches, as well. We had a bunch of Elders, so I divided people up into prayer groups with an Elder leading each group. Marsha and I took the kids. It was a very large group of kids, from first grade to senior high, and they were all scared and confused. The impromptu prayer service lasted a couple of hours and then people just kind of wandered away. A lot of you remember the feeling.

          In that small city we had a very strong pastors’ group. Twelve churches where all the pastors were sincere friends. On September 12, early in the morning, one of the guys called me and said they were going to have a meeting at the Church of Christ to plan a community service. I told him I might make it, but I would be late. Whatever you all decide. I got there just a little late, but they were already done. The service would be at my church on the evening of September 18. Every pastor would speak for five minutes and I would finish up. There were bigger buildings, but they wanted our church. When I asked about how this would be put together, they told me to do it how I wanted.

          Our building was fair sized and we could seat a lot of people. On the 18^th we were triple packed. I worried about the floors. I had left it up to each pastor to use their five minutes on whatever they wanted and we would sing a hymn between each speaker. I had decided to let the Holy Spirit do the directing, so the only planned thing was the order of speakers and the songs we would sing. Nobody could have ever predicted the way it would go.

Other than opening with the National Anthem, I stayed away from patriotic songs. I just felt that way. The building was unbelievably packed. Each pastor’s five minutes turned into ten or more and each hymn after each speaker so closely linked to what they were saying that it almost seemed as though the song had been written for the moment. Not one speaker had gone the patriotic route, but all proclaimed Jesus. Ten pastors in attendance, other than me, so by the time I took the pulpit it was going on 9:30 PM. No one seemed anxious to leave. They were in the presence of something special.

I had led all the music and, by the time I got to speak as the last speaker, I was hot and tired. Everyone was, actually. My planned ten minutes went to twenty and the people would have taken more. A couple of hundred had seats, several hundred others stood. But they were people who were stirred. Finally, I announced that our praise team would lead the final song, which was one they may not have yet heard. We put the words up on the screen. Ray Boltz’s I Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb. One would assume it would have been am inspiring song of patriot emotion, something along the line of I Am Proud to be an American, but the whole evening we had devoted our words and music to Christ. Each pastor had, in their own words, told us that the country’s salvation was in the hands of Christians. The final song was perfect.

When it was over, we prayed and dismissed. It seemed odd that no one wanted to leave. People stayed and talked for a long time. I was totally drained and I sat down in one of the pulpit chairs. What a night.

I have always been one to look at things with a view to five years or ten years or twenty years down the road. One of those things that makes me weird. I looked out over that church that night and wonder about the country in twenty years. It hasn’t turned out well.

Twenty years later, the country’s leadership favors a socialist approach to government and is proving daily that they have no understanding of history. As a country we were far more united when we went to bed on September 11, 2001 than we will be when we go to bed on September 11, 2021. And why is that? We have looked for answers in politics, in military might, in leadership that shuns Christ unless they are speaking to Christians. We have pledged our allegiance to anything other than Jesus.

Here are the words to Ray Boltz’s song:

I Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb

I pledge allegiance to the Lamb

With all my strength, with all I am

I will seek to honor His commands

I pledge allegiance to the Lamb

I have heard how Christians long ago

Were brought before a tyrant's throne

They were told that he would spare their lives

If they would renounce the name of Christ

But one by one they chose to die

The Son of God they would not deny

Like a great angelic choir sings

I can almost hear their voices ring

I pledge allegiance to the Lamb

With all my strength, with all I am

I will seek to honor His commands

I pledge allegiance to the Lamb

Now the years have come, and the years have gone

But the cause of Jesus still goes on

Now our time has come to count the cost

To reject this world, to embrace the cross

And one by one let us live our lives

For the One who died to give us life

Till the trumpet sounds on the final day

Let us proudly stand and boldly say

I pledge allegiance to the Lamb

With all my strength, with all I am

I will seek to honor His commands

I pledge allegiance to the Lamb

To the Lamb of God who bore my pain

Who took my place, who wore my shame

I will seek to honor His commands

I pledge allegiance to the Lamb.

Only the Lord can heal this country.